The Book of the White Earl is an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 religious and literary miscellany created c. 1404–1452.

The Book of the White Earl, now Bodleian Laud Misc. MS 610, consists of twelve folios inserted into Leabhar na Rátha, aka The Book of Pottlerath. It was created by Gaelic

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 scribes

Scribes

Scribes is a minimalist and extensible text editor for GNOME that combines simplicity with power. Scribes focuses on ways workflow and productivity can be intelligently automated and radically improved...

 under the patronage of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde

James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde

James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond was the son of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond and Anne Welles. He was called The White Earl and esteemed for his learning. He was the patron of the Irish literary work, 'The Book of the White Earl'...

 (1392–1452). Henry and Marsh-Michel describe it as follows:

"The sumptuous initials of this book are not more or less servile repetition of twelfth-century work ... the work of the scribe also is dazzling. He plays like a virtuoso with various sizes of script, the larger size having a majestic decorative quality. The contents are no less remarkable; the 'Martyrology of Óengus', the 'Acallam na Senórach

Acallam na Senórach

Acallam na Senórach is an important prosimetric Middle Irish narrative dating to the last quarter of the 12th century...

' and a dindsenchus. ... The foliage pattern is probably inspired by foreign models, but is so completely integrated that the borrowing is only realised on second thoughts. The initials are large, bold, and drawn in firm lines and bright colours"

Butler was known to have been strongly Gaelicised. He was an Irish-speaker and seems to have been the very first of the Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...

 lords to appoint a brehon

Brehon

Brehon is the term in Gaelic-Irish culture for a judge. The Brehons were part of the system of "Brehon Law". The Brehons wore yellow robes when delivering verdicts. Several dozen families were recognised as hereditary brehon clans.-See also:* Mac an Bhaird...

, Domhnall Mac Flannachadha, for his service. Butler granted Mac Flannchadha lands in Tipperary

Tipperary

Tipperary is a town and a civil parish in South Tipperary in Ireland. Its population was 4,415 at the 2006 census. It is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and is in the historical barony of Clanwilliam....

.

Sources

• Manuscripts and illuminations 1169-1603, by Francoise Henry and Genevieve Louise Marsh-Micheli, in A New History of Ireland, pp. 801–803, volume two.